Here’s where I go 180 degrees in the other direction in this series of posts about how schools handled or mishandled bullying in books about school shootings. The last two books I covered, “Endgame” and “Rupture” were both damning accounts of how the school did nothing to curb the bullying and consequently led to a mass shooting. In the book, “We Need to Talk About Kevin” by Lionel Shriver, there is little evidence that the school could have done anything to prevent the events that led up to Kevin killing seven pupils and a teacher and wounding two more.

The main issue in this case is the fact that Kevin wasn’t bullied. If anything, he might have been perceived as the bully. In his mother’s account of Kevin’s life, she states that the other students at school gave Kevin a wide berth. Furthermore, he did nothing to make himself stand out or draw any attention towards himself whatsoever. As far as the school is concerned, Kevin Katchadourian was just another student.

Some circumstantial evidence that arises in the story could be introduced. For one, there’s the false accusation by Kevin and his friend against a female teacher whom Kevin claimed made inappropriate advances towards him. The teacher ended up being placed on administrative duties. However, that didn’t ring any alarm bells with the school in the story and I doubt it would have done so in real life. Kevin wouldn’t have been profiled or have been seen as a potential troublemaker.

One way the school could have prevented the shooting was if they knew about the fake awards ceremony Kevin masterminded. All of his targets, none of them had any issue with Kevin, were assembled into a school gymnasium to rehearse for this awards ceremony. The recipients of these ‘awards’ including the teacher, were told that under no circumstances, were they to reveal the awards in case it made others jealous. Still, it’s still a little surprising that no one leaked it out or even the teacher discuss it with the principal in private. Instead, they all fell into Kevin’s trap.

The shooting scene from “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” There’s not much more to it.

As a result, Kevin’s school, while possibly might feel they looked a little stupid by being fooled by Kevin’s plan, could not have done anything to prevent bullying because Kevin wasn’t.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1516051525&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

Now that the holidays are over and I hope you all had a happy one, I can return to my theme of how schools in the novels I post about handled the bullying mentioned within them. When I visited the story “Endgame” by the late Nancy Garden, I stated that had the story been real life, it would be the most damning of any school in its failure to tackle bullying within it. Since refamiliarising myself with “Rupture” by Simon Lelic, I think that “Endgame” has a competitor in the most damning of the school sweepstakes.

For those new to Peaceful Rampage, “Rupture” is about school teacher Samuel Sajikowski, who is so badly bullied by both another teacher and pupils, that one day he snaps and goes into his school and shoots three pupils and a teacher dead before turning the gun on himself. As the story unravels, we find that Sam may have been driven to commit his crime by all the bullying he was subjected to.

First, let’s look at the teacher. The PE teacher made Samuel’s life a misery from day one after Samuel insists his name is Samuel and not Sam. After that, the PE teacher plays all sorts of tricks on him and does everything to make Samuel’s life hell including getting him in trouble with the Head by telling Samuel that teachers were allowed to wear jeans on Friday. The bullying only gets worse after that.

If a bullying teacher isn’t bad enough, most of the pupils also bully Sam. The chief of these pupil bullies is a boy named Donovan Stanley, whom the Head has already written off as someone who will leave the school, get a girl pregnant and live in a council house off the public purse. Stanley leads his fellow pupils to wreck Samuel’s bike and poo in his briefcase. The fusion of teacher and pupil bullying come together when at a student-teacher football match, Stanley and another pupil intentionally break Samuel’s leg. After the deed is done, the boy who recounts the story says the PE teacher gave them both a sly wink.

This is a good place to start about the school’s lack of concern over the bullying. Here we have a clear cut case of assault, even grievous bodily harm and the school does nothing about. The one boy thought he’d at least get a detention but didn’t even get that. Instead, there’s no mention of the school doing anything, not even an investigation. Then there’s the case of the ‘Bum Blog.’ This is an invention by some pupils who set up a blog intentionally created to humiliate Samuel. The school does nothing with the Head citing free speech. Even when Samuel does try to get help, the Head basically tells him to man up and get on with it offering him no support. My conclusion is that the school is just as responsible for the events that led up to Samuel going into an packed assembly one day and shooting three pupils and a teacher dead.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1515440811&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

If the occurrences in the novels on bullying and school shootings had actually happened in real life, then what happens in “Endgame” by the late Nancy Garden would be the most damning of any school in any of the stories. In “Endgame,” the bullying starts almost straight away as the protagonist, Gray Wilton and his friend are set upon by senior football players, led by alpha-male, Zorro. However, when Gray reports the bullying to Mr Vee, the PE teacher, the teacher’s response is “sticks and stones.” Later on the story he tries to further justify his lack of action on Gray’s plight by saying, “Boys will be boys.”

Sadly, this seems to be the state of affairs in American high schools. The jocks are mollycoddled and patted on the head for abusing the “freaks” and “weirdos.” Like in so many cases, Mr Vee didn’t want to get involved in the situation because it involved his boys, the football players. However, Mr Vee isn’t the only teacher guilty of doing nothing to stop the bullying hell Gray was going through. Later on in the story, Gray conveys to his lawyer how teachers would stay in the classrooms so they could remain oblivious to any bullying happening out in the school halls and therefore not have to deal with it. Furthermore, when Gray comes to school in the mornings, there are no teachers in the area giving Zorro and his cronies carte blanche to do whatever they want and they do make Gray’s life hell. Eventually, he takes back ways and hidden passages into school so he can avoid the bullies. What we have here is a school that pretends they don’t know that bullying is going on in their school because of the fear it might get the star football player into trouble.

There is one teacher who shows Gray some support, that is the music teacher who tutors him because of his ability to play the drums. However, this teacher’s efforts are limited. One reason is because Gray’s father thinks his son playing the drums are a waste of time. The other is when Gray’s drum kit is destroyed before the big Christmas music show, he immediately knows that Zorro is responsible. The teacher seems to believe Gray. However, when Zorro is exonerated, he gets his revenge on Gray by forcing him to drink paint. No teacher is anywhere to witness this and the music teacher is powerless to do anymore.

R.I.P Nancy Garden

The multi-million dollar question is: With no support from the bullying by a school that doesn’t seem to want to know, is it any wonder that Gray took matters into his own hands? I’ll be the first to say that going into a school with a gun and shooting those who have wronged him was not the solution to the problem. Taking a life never is. However, if I was one of the victims or their parent, I would be tempted to sue the school on the grounds that their non actions in preventing the bullying contributed to the later atrocity. The school knew about the bullying and did nothing by pretending it didn’t know. That’ just not acceptable and though this is a book, I can see it happening out there in the real world.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1513883369&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

Reflecting back to events of the past couple of weeks and over the entire time I have been writing, I believe that its time to venture forth and ask, “Are the schools at fault when it comes to bullying?” Looking at the recent event in Virginia where a mother was arrested and nearly charged with a felony for putting a recording device in her daughter’s bag to find out if she was getting bullied, I would say yes in this case. The mother did try going through the correct procedure of informing the school that her daughter was being bullied but had no response. Therefore, she did what she did out of exasperation. It might not have been the right thing to do as there are lots of privacy issues here but the school failed the mother, plain and simple.

I have no doubt that if the school intervened, there would have been no need for the mother to put a recording device into her daughter’s bag. But why are schools seem to be slow or inactive in dealing with bullying? As a teacher myself, I know how overworked schools and teachers are. In many cases, they aren’t simply ignoring a bullying instance, however, they are so stressed out over their workload that it gets pushed to the back-burner. BTW, I am not using this to excuse schools for not dealing with the bullying, far from it. Bullying cases should be fast-tracked to the top of the school’s attention so it can be dealt with before too much suffering happens.

Other reasons for schools not seeming to handle bullying is the simple fact that they don’t know it’s going on. Many victims are afraid to report bullying for many reasons like looking weak, worried the school won’t take them seriously or reprisals by the bullies outside of school. Of course, some school officials and teachers bury their head in the sand because they don’t want to have to deal with it, so they pretend to know nothing about it. Then they play dumb if pulled up on it. This is wrong and what should happen more is that victims should be totally encouraged to report the bullying they suffer.

What really grinds my gears, (sorry, I’m a Family Guy fan), is how some schools over react when victims or their parents decide enough is enough and take matters into their own hands. The latest incident in Virginia is a prime example and for another good one, read my ancient post, “A Victory for the Bullies.” I theorize that schools react this way because they have been seen as not dealing with the bullying, so, because they lack evidence against the bullies, use the letter of the law to punish the victims because that victim has just embarrassed the school by highlighting the school’s inability to efficiently tackle bullying. This is lame in my view and in my opinion brings more shame upon the school.

Family Guy

Ideas leading to more ideas about future posts has given me inspiration here. Using the novels I popularly use, “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult, “Endgame” by the late Nancy Garden, “Rupture” by Simon Lelic and my own novel, “He Was Weird,” all novels where bullying results in a school shooting, I will look at each story and see how well the school handled the bullying in it. I tell you now, that I’m not holding out much hope for the schools here but it should make interesting reading.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-Weird-Lefevre-Michael-Paperback/dp/B00YRC6826/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512406367&sr=1-3&keywords=he+was+weird

Rolling on from my unexpected post about another victory for the bullies, I feel the need to go on more. Like I have said in the past, if I learn of any instance where a bullying victim gets the shaft for trying not to be a victim or stop the bullying, I will highlight it here. Some people might think that I am using being a victim of bullying to excuse any sort of behaviour, I’m not. However, I will not let an instance where the victim is the one done on account of some nonsensical technicality.

My last post was what exactly I am going on about. Here we have a girl who is being bullied, her mother reports it to the school but nothing is done about it. At least the mother isn’t told of anything being done. Therefore, she puts a small digital recorder into her daughter’s bag so she can hear for herself if her daughter is getting bullied. The recorder is found by a teacher and next thing, the mother is up on felony charges for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Tell me, what delinquent act is the daughter committing here? If there is any delinquency, it’s that of the bullies! So again, we have a mother of a bullying victim, who only wants to find out how bad the bullying is, on some nonsense criminal charge. I shudder at the logic behind this. The worst thing is that this wasn’t the first time I have posted about this and I sadly know it won’t be the last.

In spite of what I have written above, I don’t think being a bullying victim justifies everything. At least not those who commit a school shooting, even though when I reflect back to those three years of hell, whenever a school shooting occurs, I realize that, “This could have been me.” Admittedly, when I read both “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult and “Endgame” by the late Nancy Garden, I found myself rooting for Peter and Gray when they were on trial for their shootings. However, while part of me wanted them to be found not guilty, I know in reality they weren’t and deserved to be convicted. Being a bullying victim does not justify murder. Saying that, I don’t think either of them deserved their life without parole sentences due to the circumstances. It was their experiences which influenced my decision when I wrote “He Was Weird,” to make sure Mark wasn’t taken alive when he committed his shooting.

Even though I experienced a lot of the hell that Mark goes through in the story, I don’t feel justified for myself or him carrying out a school massacre. What writing “He Was Weird” accomplished was to exorcise those demons and move on. The bullying I suffered then doesn’t effect me anymore. Back then, I never thought about taking any of the lives of my bullies and am glad I didn’t.

Going back to the beginning, victims shooting up their school is a far cry from a victim or their parent getting arrested on some bullsh*t charge because they wanted to end the bullying. In many of these cases, the letter of the law was applied, in many cases by the school themselves and that gives me thought for my next post. Victims should be seen as such and not be subject to criminal punishment when they honestly and lawfully try to end the bullying.

In the very early days of Peaceful Rampage, I wrote three posts about what Mark, the protagonist in my book “He Was Weird” would have thought about the shooters in the books, “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” “Nineteen Minutes” and “Endgame.” When writing “He Was Weird,” I read all three of those books out of fear of being accused of plagiarism. However, in two of the three, Kevin being the odd one out, I developed an empathy for the main characters in those books. After all, they, like Mark, were bullied to the point of snapping and shooting up their school. As a result, I looked at all three shooters from Mark’s perspective. How he would have sympathized with them, been impressed by them and where he would have been critical of them. I’m not one to toot my own horn but Jodi Picoult and Nancy Garden, the authors of “Nineteen Minutes” and “Endgame” both read Mark’s analysis of their shooters and seemed rather impressed. Jodi said my comments were very thorough and very fair.

There was a fourth book in the collection I didn’t write about but I read and developed the same empathy for the shooter in the story. That was “Rupture” by Simon Lelic. While I have mentioned this book in other topics related with those three other books, I never examined his protagonist, Sam Sajikowski, in regards to what Mark would have thought of him. I think the reasons why were one- Sam was a teacher who was bullied by both pupils and fellow teachers and I thought he wouldn’t relate. I have since dismissed that thought. Second, the story was set in Great Britain while mine and the others were all set in the US. I realize now that’s an absurd reason. So, with nothing more holding me back, here’s what Mark would have thought of Sam.

The idea of teachers being bullied by pupils would have been a foreign concept for Mark. When I went through school teachers still commanded an aura of respect and with Mark’s mindset, they still would have. Besides, in the town I modeled the story on, any abuse or aggression towards a teacher would have been met with suspension of the pupil. Therefore, learning that Sam was getting picked on by pupils would have sent his Aspergers mind into full spin. However, he would not have been surprised at teachers bullying him. After all, the teachers at his school exacerbated a lot of the bullying against him and it once Mark’s mind came to terms with the pupil bullying, he might have drawn a link between that and the bullying Sam got from other teachers. Sam would have eventually had Mark’s sympathy.

Like he was with all three shooters in the other books, Mark would have been critical of Sam’s execution of the big day. At thirteen, Mark wouldn’t have understood that in Britain, guns are much harder to get than America and therefore, would have scoffed at the old fashioned revolver Sam used in his shooting. Six bullets is not enough fire power to achieve the aim Sam was looking for in Mark’s view. Mark would have thought Sam should have used a better weapon. On the other hand, Mark would have been very impressed with Sam’s marksmanship. Sam killed three pupils and a teacher with just five bullets and even with Mark’s higher body count due to superior firepower, that score would have been amazing. Then again, Mark would have pointed out that only one of the dead was any of his intended victims so again, the need for better weaponry was that much more important.

Unlike the other three books, Mark and Sam have one thing in common. At the end of their shooting sprees, both were able to go out on their own terms, thus frustrating any opportunity from victims or others to vent their anger at the shooters. Mark would have liked the fact that Sam saved the last bullet for himself.

Following on from previous post, “Bullied For Being Different,” I would like to write about how the Goth culture, along with Marilyn Manson, gets blamed for school shootings in America. When the Columbine tragedy occurred in the US, many people, especially on the right, blamed Goths. One politician even warned about “the onset of Goth gangs’ and how they were even more dangerous than traditional gangs like the Cripps and the Bloods. But are they?

As you can see from the photo, the two Columbine Shooters don’t exactly look like Goths. In the investigation after, it was found that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were not of the trench coat wearing brigade or Goths. In fact, they weren’t Marilyn Manson fans either. However, the unfortunate case is that it is easy to blame the Goth culture out of intolerance than to find out the real causes as to why they did it.

Marilyn Manson-

One backlash from the Columbine shooting was that it was used as an excuse to wage war on ‘weirdoes’ and other non-conformists. Schools all over America began profiling their pupils with the intention of kicking out those who they believed to be potential trouble makers. Naturally, Goths were prime targets in this witch hunt. As a result, anyone wearing a trench coat or listening to Marilyn Manson was considered a potential trouble maker and dealt with by being sent for counselling on the one extreme to getting kicked out of school on the other. The question is, are schools acting in the proper manner, being paranoid or just wanting to justify their intolerance to those who don’t conform to standard dress?

In the books about school shootings which I often feature on here, Jodi Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes,” Lionel Shriver’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” the late Nancy Garden’s “Endgame” and my own book, “He Was Weird,” none of the school shooters are Goths. The closest is possibly Peter, the shooter in “Nineteen Minutes,” who listens to music similar to Marilyn Manson. Of course, when the media gets wind of that, it is used against him. Grey, the shooter in “Endgame,” plays the drums and because he has an interest in music, was obviously driven by music to commit his shooting. Note my hint of sarcasm here. Even Kevin in the book that bears his name was not a Goth and his musical interests are not known. Only the reader gets the impression gets the impression that something isn’t quite right about Kevin because to his school peers, he blends in perfectly. As for my own novel, Mark is definitely not a Goth and it is clear from the investigation that music had nothing to do with his killing spree.

With the exception of “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” we know that the shooters in the other books are all victims of bullying. However, in each story, the bullying aspect is downplayed, even denied in the case of “Endgame” by those in supposed authority. It is far easier to blame other things like music and Goth culture for school shootings than to find out what really caused some troubled kid to snap and commit carnage on his school.

The last thing I have been contemplating is the fact that a lot of what happens in America gets reported on British media. Columbine made big news in the UK and was why when news of Mark’s shooting in “He Was Weird” goes out, I write about it being in a British TV newscast. American intolerance of certain cultures is also well known in Britain and that leads me to wonder that if that somehow influenced the intolerance of those who killed Sophie Lancaster for being a Goth. Before anyone jumps on me for making outlandish associations, when I worked as a supply teacher in a high school, I was asked by many pupils who upon discovering I was American, if I was in a gang or had seen a drive by shooting. Right or wrong, the media can have a big influence.

Sophie Lancaster

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501920803&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

For this post, I’m back on the subject of bullying as seen on TV. The television series “Criminal Minds” has given me three episodes worth of inspiration. The first one was posted about two weeks ago on school shootings. Today’s post was inspired by the eleventh episode of season nine, simply called “Bully.”

The story as far as I’m concerned, begins with a man being murdered while he was out jogging. What really astounds the BAU, as well as local police, is the ferocity of the attack. Here is a well conditioned man who appeared able to handle himself but he is beaten really badly to death. Things get more interesting when the team discover a young couple who suffered the same fate a year earlier. There is debate whether the two murders are linked and that provides an interesting counter plot but I’m not here to review the programme.

Another murder happens and that leads to the big breakthrough in the case. A husband and wife are murdered in their house and the team interview the young daughter who has to come back from university to deal with her parents’ affairs. She tells the team of a young boy who was believed to have committed suicide because he was bullied so badly. This boy was forced to wear girl’s underpants in front of the entire school. One can only imagine the humiliation and it makes me glad that I didn’t have such an ordeal. It turns out that the murdered jogger was a substitute teacher at the high school at the time and saw the bullying but didn’t do anything about it.

Here comes the murderer. We discover that in the years after he dropped out of high school, due to the bullying, he has become a physical fitness fanatic aided by taking steroids. Viewers get a full look at his now extremely aggressive tendencies. They also get a flashback to when he was bullied by having his head stuck down a toilet. In the end, the team locate him at the high school after he was beaten up but not yet killed another teacher who was present at the bullying of his friend but sorted the problem by making the victim and the bully shake hands. Unlike so many American cop shows, the murdering victim is not shot but taken into custody on the promise that he would get to tell his side of the story. After reading the books, “Nineteen Minutes” and “Endgame,” I wonder how much of his story would be told and would anybody listen?

While I be the first one to admit that murder doesn’t justify anything like this, I couldn’t help feeling a lot of sympathy for the killer. I know that Mark in “He Was Weird” would have felt it too. Both of us faced bullies but unlike the teacher who didn’t effectively deal with it on the programme, some of my teachers actually tried to turn it around and blame me, the victim. I highlight this quite a lot in the book. Another interesting personal link to this episode was that although I didn’t take steroids, I did join the marines after high school because I wanted it to give me the physical tools to deal with any bullies. Even though the horrendous bullying I endured was in junior high school, it had still left a mental scar that is still present today. It’s just faded a lot.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492712964&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

My last post about the horrible new cyber bullying game and the brave young lady who spoke out against it gave me incentive for this and my next post. I was always intending to write one or more posts about cyber bullying and after last week, this is as good a time as any.

Like I have done with several topics, I have decided to look at cyber bullying through the books I often cover on Peaceful Rampage. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no cyber bullying in either “We Need to Talk About Kevin” or “Endgame.” In Jodi Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes,” the only instance is when the bullies spam their victim’s personal email to a girl he likes all around the school. That leaves my own book, “He Was Weird” and Simon Lelic’s “Rupture.” It’s the latter, I’ll focus on in this post.

If you aren’t familiar with the story, “Rupture” is about a teacher who is bullied by both colleagues and pupils to the point where he snaps and carries out a school shooting. The police detective assigned to investigate the shooting uncovers something called the “Bum Blog,” which is written by pupils and hurls insults at this particular teacher. What’s worse is the fact that the Head Teacher knows about this bullying blog but allows to go on because of free speech. Simon Lelic only treats us to a few highlights of some of the things written in the “Bum Blog” but it is enough to let us know that this blog is nasty. A clear cut case of cyber bullying and it leaves the detective with little doubt as to why the teacher shot up his school. Further proof that even in fiction, cyber bullying stinks.

To buy He Was Weird, go to https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489443538&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

After reviewing two prominent books about the role of music in the school shootings which take place in their stories, I have decided to write about my own novel, “He Was Weird.” Before I launch, I would like to point out that, originally, I read both “Nineteen Minutes” and “Endgame” while I was writing my own story out of fear of being accused of plagiarism. Those fears were put to rest quite quickly although reading about the role of music on those stories gave me ideas for my own in that regard.

Mark, the protagonist from the story, is never really into music. In fact, in one scene, he states that Marilyn Manson is Satanic. Therefore, you, the reader, don’t really get much insight into his musical tastes because there is none to get. However, after Mark carries out his big atrocity by shooting up his school, it doesn’t stop some people from insisting that he was driven to his crime by music. During a phone in radio programme, some caller insists that he Marilyn Manson and violent video games were the reasons behind Mark’s killing spree. Even the talk show host downplays those comments.

Marilyn Manson-

The argument that music was at fault for Mark’s school frenzy doesn’t end with the radio phone in. Maybe one of the officers from the Ramsgate Police Department was listening to the broadcast because when they go to Mark’s house and confiscate his things, they do so with the idea of him being under the influence of films, games or music. Sadly for them, they find nothing to substantiate their claim. The only computer games they find are the Age of Empires games and an ice hockey game. Though that doesn’t stop some from stating that Mark’s amazing ability to play the Age of Empires games influenced his decision to shoot up his school. As a result and I’m going off track a little here, parents of the victims try to use it to get a teacher at the school fired and one tries to sue Microsoft. The same goes for films. The only two they find are for “Saving Private Ryan” and “A Bridge Too Far.” Both are bloody World War II films but no one would want to admit that they were an influence on a school shooting. Although watching those films before the big day does help de-sensitize Mark to all the blood he sees when he shoots everyone. That leaves music. Well, the police only find two CDs belonging to Mark. One his a commercial rock sounding band called the Guiding Lights and the other is a hardcore thrash metal band called Demonslayer. However, despite the different genres, both bands have one thing in common, they’re both Christian rock bands! After a couple of songs about Jesus on both CD’s, the cops have to conclude that music couldn’t have influenced Mark to shoot up his school.

After much thought and four posts, I am left to conclude that music has very little or nothing to do with anyone shooting up their school. There are other factors as to why this happens and often the case, as in the three books, it is bullying. Unfortunately, most people don’t want to accept that bullying may have something to do with it and find it easier to blame music no matter how preposterous it might sound. I think that until something changes, then music will continue to be wrongly blamed for terrible tragedies.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1487691409&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird